DIY pocket door using VJ panels

Renowayoflife

Australia and New Zealand's Best D.I.Y. Project 2024 entry See more

We wanted to add a pocket door to our home; we recently added an extension, where we added the bedrooms. We wanted to design a door to create some privacy so we could close the bedrooms off if we wanted to entertain.

We knew a 3m high custom door was way out of the budget so we decided to build it ourselves.

Video here - https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4qvrywSl06/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

We built the door using leftover hoop pine flooring and VJ panes. Derek constructed a frame using ripped-down hoop pine flooring and nailed it together.

We laid a VJ panel on the floor with the VJ's facing down.
We attached the frame to the VJ panel using liquid nails.
We applied liquid nails to the top of the frame and placed another full VJ panel onto the frame VJ side up.
We then nailed the board to the frame, flipped it over and nailed the otherside.
The nail holes were filled with wood fill.

We framed in the opening, taking it as wide and high as possible and in one side of the pocket door.

The hardware was installed and we hung the door.

We framed in the remaining side sheeted and painted.

Happy DIYing

Claire

TT

IG

Blog

Materials

Tools

Materials

Hoop Pine Flooring - or other wood - We had materials left over
liquid Nails
VJ panel
Framing Timber
Door track

EricL

Hello @Renowayoflife

Thank you so much for sharing your door assembly process. The door looks fantastic, and it would probably have cost you an arm and a leg to have this made. It's great that you had some left-over materials to build it, what is the overall thickness of the door?

Again, thanks for sharing this fantastic project.

Eric

Renowayoflife

Hi @EricL Thank you so much, love how it turned out and loving the savings you're right it would have cost a fortune.

The door is 40mm thick.

Dave-1

Afternoon @Renowayoflife

Now that is a brilliant idea! First up I really like the seperation if needed and then such an imposing door but hidden Nice work and definently outside the box thinking. Think I will file this away for possible future use

Dave

Renowayoflife

Thanks @Dave-1 It's great as it retracts entirely into the wall so most people don't know it's there

We have 3 small kids so it's great if you're up early you don't wake everyone up.

RobP

Hi @Renowayoflife I absolutely love this door - so impressive! Would you be able to provide a list of tools needed to construct the door. I'm sure there are plenty of members who would love to have a go at this if they have the right tools available. Such a great looking feature.

Renowayoflife

Hi @RobP

We didn't need a lot of tools for this project, we used;

Circular Saw to cut the pine frame and VJ's down
Nailgun 15 gauge to nail it into place
Orbital Sander to sand after filling the holes
Framing Nailer for the frame install
Screwdrivers for the frame.

Thanks Claire

RobP

Hi @Renowayoflife thanks so much for that list - great to know people don't need a huge list of tools. Looks very achievable!